Ethiopian Airlines Consortium has accused the Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, of spreading false information about the Nigeria Air project.
In a letter to President Bola Tinubu dated October 15, consortium representative Michael Adebayo challenged Keyamo to provide proof of his allegations.
Titled: ‘Ethiopian Airline Consortium Plea On The Issue Of The National Carrier,’ Adebayo expressed disappointment over Keyamo’s claims that the project is a “fraud,” not a national carrier, and an attempt to monopolise the Nigerian aviation industry.
SaharaReporters report that the consortium acknowledged that different governments may have varying approaches but emphasised their willingness to abide by the current administration’s decisions on the project.
This development comes after the federal government suspended the project in August 2023, with the House of Representatives labelling the deal as “a fraud” in June 2023.
However, the consortium in the letter appealed to the President to prevail on Keyamo to stop spreading falsehood in the interest of relationship between members of the consortium and Nigeria on one hand and the government and people of Ethiopia and the government and people of Nigeria on the other hand, noting that these relationships had existed for over 70 years and should not be destroyed.
It explained that the allegations Keyamo made in recent Aviation Industry Zoom Meeting, about certain clauses in a “Master Agreement”, which it described as false, forced them to write the letter to make clarifications on some issues he had raised.
It added that the “negotiated Agreement with the Nigerian Government is not called a ‘Master Agreement’, the Agreement is called an ‘Establishment and Operations Agreement’, copy of the agreement is hereby attached, to verify this, copies of the Agreement currently reside with the Ministry of Aviation, ICRC and Ministry of Justice that vetted and approved it vide its letter to the Ministry of Aviation, also attached, which also refers to the Agreement in its real name Establishment and Operations Agreement”.
It said, “We would also like to specifically mention that the Minister’s statement on all management staffing being Ethiopians, Tax avoidance, profits being taken to Ethiopia and wet leases for aircraft are not true.
“Normal practice is for a Strategic investor to provide the management staff of the company it runs during an initial period to stabilize the company; to nominate such staff does not mean the staff will be Ethiopians, some Nigerians had already been short listed for the management positions.
“It is also normal practice for staff on secondment to be under a management contract and to avoid paying tax in two countries, they pay only tax in their permanent abode, however the negotiation team informed the consortium that Personal Income Tax was levied by the State Government and the Federal Government did not have such powers to waive it, as such, no tax waiver existed in the Agreement or Full Business Case.
“In a company with 51% owned by Nigerians, 51% of the profits will reside in Nigeria and like in other businesses complying with Nigerian Law foreign companies who show evidence of investment are allowed to repatriate their share of the profits.
“Also, Nigeria has many pilots flying worldwide including in Ethiopian Airlines, as such we never considered using wet leases or foreign pilots in Nigeria, the aircraft were to be Nigerian registered aircraft on commencement, we had even been allocated Nigerian registration numbers for the initial aircraft by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.
“Your Excellency Sir, following the approval of the Outline Business Case (OBC) by the Federal Executive Council in 2021, the OBC determined the structure of the National Carrier, not our consortium and it was the Nigerian Government that recommended a 51% Nigerian investor participation and a 49% Strategic partner participation.
“The OBC recommended that the Strategic partner be an International Airline, this structure was determined by the Federal Executive Council in which Mr. Festus keyamo was a member.
“The Federal Ministry of Aviation published adverts in the Economist Magazine and several Nigerian Newspapers in 2022, our Consortium submitted a bid in compliance with the advert and the subsequently issued request for proposal. Following the submission the Government evaluated our bid and subsequently declared us preferred bidder and we thereafter commenced very rigorous negotiation meetings with the Ministry of Aviation, Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Federal Ministry of Finance and Federal Ministry of Justice.
“The negotiation meetings produced a Draft Establishment and Operations Agreement and Full Business Case. We therefore do not understand why responding to a published bid has brought us so much humiliation. If this is allowed to continue it may affect the ability of your Government to attract further Foreign Direct Investment which is critical to the success of your reforms.
“We hereby reiterate that we do not have any issue with Government having a change of approach on the issue of national Carrier but what worries us is the Ministers’ continuous denigration of our consortium and his constant intention to misinform the public. Our consortium has a combined of over 100 years in operation and have never been so maligned.”
“Your excellency, we plead that you kindly direct Mr. Keyamo to stop further damage our Consortiums reputation and the relationship between Nigeria and Ethiopia,” it appealed.
